Monthly Archives: January 2014

Abe Russell said his 6-year-old English bulldog, Tank, was killed by a mountain lion Monday. On Monday morning before he went to work, he said, Tank apparently got out of the backyard by pushing through the fence.

Russell said he and his Great Dane went looking for Tank, but about 40 feet from his house he turned the corner to find a large mountain lion just a few feet away with Tank’s body.

“It was pretty traumatic,” Russell said. “To not notice it and to walk up to within 4 feet of one is terrifying.”

Russell said he wanted to back up, but his Great Dane started to bark at the cougar and he was worried the lion would kill her, too. So he picked up a stick and jabbed the lion in the neck until it ran off.

I don’t doubt that it could be necessary to confront a dangerous wild critter, but what’s described above is NOT one of those times. The unfortunate “Tank” was already dead. Back away slowly, go home, and report the incident to the authorities. If you want to cover your retreat, use something that can do an effective job in terms of stopping the critter:

Kimber Pro Carry .45 caliber pistol

Please, do not pick up a stick and poke the lion or bear or coyote with it, in the hopes the animal will run away!

Abe Russell must have a guardian angel, one working overtime, if he’s generally this reckless and manages to stay in one piece. Maybe he just had a brain cramp on this occasion . . .

Since they’re rarely seen in most residential neighborhoods, here’s a photo of a City of Boulder snowplow:

By this time, the powers-that-be in charge of Boulder’s halfhearted snow removal efforts should probably have figured out that the snowplow’s blade must be lowered onto the surface of the roadway, in order to remove frozen precipitation effectively.

On the other hand, the Boulder City Council may need to commission a “study” of the issue, hiring outside consultants and budgeting for more overtime among city staff as well.

Read the article about the annual MDHI Point-in-Time Survey from the Daily Camera.

Here’s a look at the 2013 results. It will be several months before 2014 data is released so we can compare.

Bear in mind that any census of the homeless always results in a significant undercount, for a variety of reasons. I refuse to be tallied simply because I’m not interested in helping to obtain funding for more idiotic projects like the $6 million 31-unit Housing First project at 1175 Lee Hill (a collaboration between Boulder Housing Partners and BoulderShelterfor the Homeless), which will serve clients who are chronically homeless, single adult alcoholics/drug addicts with a dual diagnosis of mental illness — sobriety in NOT a requirement for participation in Housing First, and clients will be allowed to drink in their apartments. Seems pretty pointless to me, especially in view of what has happened at Karluk Manor in Anchorage, AK (that city’s HF facility, which opened in December, 2011).

Boulder, CO’s homeless shelter/services industry also seeks to Feel Good about being the destination city for transients from Denver and elsewhere — despite the fact that available resources go only so far, and Boulder County’s own homeless people frequently are being shortchanged. This has a simple solution, which is being adopted by more and more cities: require valid photo ID showing a Boulder County address in order to be eligible for shelter/services from nonprofits.

Unfortunately, that’s not the Boulder approach. Take a look at our Main Branch Library at 1001 Arapahoe, next to Central Park:

(Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera)

Poor dog! Doesn’t get vet care, or decent food, or a warm place to sleep, but its owner has $$$ for cigarettes, booze, and dope. Frankly, the cops should he handing these bums the $5 tickets on RTD to Denver, then escorting ’em to the Transit Center to make sure they board the bus. Might even have a police vehicle tail that bus as far as Broomfield, to make sure the bums stay on it.

Don’t think I’m angry just because I’m suffering from the Denver Crud, picked up during a morning visit to BSH more than a week ago. I hate the bad behavior of transients when I’m feeling fine, too.

Maybe there’s room on the Denver-bound buses for the apologists/enablers, along with the transients . . . One can always dream of restoring Boulder to a family-friendly place where decent folks, including the majority of the homeless who don’t cause problems, are free to enjoy public venues.

Feeling very poorly due to the crud I picked up a week ago during my morning visit to Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, I crawled into my burrow about 2PM yesterday afternoon and promptly fell asleep. About 9:30 last night, I was awakened by a transient trying to climb over the barbed-wire fence just a few feet away from me. I stared at him, after throwing off my tarp, then I rubbed my eyes to make sure they were working and I stared at him some more.

He was carrying what looked like the headboard to a queen-size bed.

After he’d gotten my attention, he moved on down the fence line to a spot where several loads of dirt have been dumped on the CDOT lot. He set his headboard down, then picked it up again and started wandering around the dirt piles, almost as if he were trapped IN A MAZE as well as being in a daze.

I knew it had to be drugs of some sort. I resisted the urge to laugh at him, because these drunks/druggies have been known to pull out a knife and stab innocent people who do so — remember Johnny Mack Rasnick, who was fatally stabbed by Charles “Eddy” Waters as he was sleeping? Mr. Rasnick had laughed at Mr. Waters earlier in their drunken evening together with a third man (also stabbed by Waters, but he survived).

I didn’t even speak to this individual, nor did he utter a word to me.

After a while, he put down the headboard and went to retrieve his backpack nearby. I just pulled the tarp back over my head and returned to sleep. I didn’t notice him around when I left my campsite about 5:20AM, but it was still very dark. I’m hoping he left during the night, and won’t return to steal my camping gear this morning as I’m otherwise occupied.

Another example of why I say that Boulder, CO has a greater proportion of people from all walks of life under the influence of various drugs than any other city in my experience.

I hope the guy didn’t freeze to death, either, but those who are non compos mentis for any reason are often unable to care for themselves.

My friend Terzah, who camped with me one night last summer and has said she wants to do so again, misses out on all the fun; she didn’t get to see the mule deer up close then, and now has missed out on the Queen-size Headboard Man.

I took a week off, not because I wanted to do so, but in order to keep an eye on my camping gear in north Boulder. Almost every morning, transients will leave Boulder Shelter for the Homeless and begin wandering around the neighborhood, peering into bushes, looking behind walls, and scouring the general area for OTHER PEOPLE’S PROPERTY.

I’ve also been sick with the typical BSH kennel cough since last Friday; just a brief exposure to those germs in the morning during my shower is all it took to lay me low. Sleeping outdoors in the fresh air is helping, despite the cold temps.

I’m always happy to get mail at BSH. I had a kind note this morning from someone I’ve never met in person, who enclosed a pair of $20 bills for life’s necessities. Obviously, I haven’t been able to play humble beggar on the corner of N. Broadway & U.S. 36 during my illness.

I’ve read three bad novels during the past week, including one by a French author. I don’t know what has happened to the supply of books which used to be available in the TV room at the shelter, but pickings are slim these days.

I learned long ago to disregard news spread by any homeless person, but I’m told that Boulder City Council is taking a closer look the idea of nonprofits requiring valid photo ID showing a Boulder County address before one can have access to shelter/services. Bridge House, BSH, and others could be doing this already if it was their desire to use scarce resources exclusively for the benefit of locals who are in need — but this would cramp their style of pointing to hundreds of transients from Denver and all across America to advance their pleading for more $$$ from both public and private funding sources. Bunch of greedy bastards, in my book.

Speaking of books, I’ll use this opportunity to again urge readers of this blog to pick up a copy of Bowling for Bums: My Life as a Charity Whore. It’s a short but interesting revelation of how some local nonprofits operate in terms of fundraising.

I don’t endorse this idea at all, but I can see where it could fit right in with the general approach of Boulder, CO’s apologists/enablers, who are making a living off of the misery of chronically homeless people.

In my previous post, I listed six ways that our fair city should reform its dealings with “transients” — those homeless people who have no ties to Boulder and come here just to grab all of the Free Stuff being given away at many different venues. As usually happens, a few Boulderites would rather make ME the issue instead of dealing with problems related to homelessness; the fact remains that if the transients behaved as I do, there wouldn’t be any trouble at all.

Of course, these are the same folks who embraced Jim Budd, so it’s obvious they aren’t too bright . . . Not honest, either.